Special
by JadeInk7
Summary: Mallory was special, yet he didn't know how. But somehow he always knew. What he doesn't know is that what is coming is so much bigger than himself. [WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS] That's all I'm saying! Read on to find out what happens - or what happened... or what will happen...


_Who am I?_

It always bothered him - the fact that he always felt different in a way. And even weirder was that that feeling, he realized, had always been with him. He just hadn't noticed, ever. Until now. The thirteen-year-old turned over in his bed. _Hmm. Strange where your thoughts wander_ , he mused to himself. But it was true. No matter how hard he tried, he still couldn't get that feeling out of his head. So, he turned his focus towards the important task of sleeping. After all, tomorrow promised to be busy, and the thing he most needed was a good night's sleep.

Unfortunately for him, however, he was not as heavy a sleeper as his father. He was more like his mother, who rarely slept at all. She was, after all, a bat. Suddenly, before his mind could wander any further, he heard a sound... he sat up in bed, and looked around warily. Maybe it was his brother, trying to bother him again. But that wasn't like him. No, he usually attempted bothering their sister, the middle child of the three. But he tried anyway. "Matthew! Stop, okay? It's like, 11:20, and I want to get some sleep, okay?" But he got no answer. Strange.

Mallory suddenly felt an eerie sensation in the pit of his stomach. _Like someone was there. Watching him_. The feeling steadily got stronger and stronger, until he could take it no more – he whirled around on the bed, now facing the opposite direction.

And then he saw it. Even in the dark bedroom, he could still see it clearly. _That's strange_ , he thought to himself. _Something's wrong here. It's too dark to see anything clearly… yet… I could see her perfectly_. But before he could process another thought, the figure before him suddenly put a finger to Mallory's lips, in a shushing motion. This caught the bat-jay off guard, but he obeyed, miraculously. And then, as if on cue, he closed his eyes, insane dizziness threatening to overtake him. And it did. Slowly, yet steadily, he fell seemingly unconscious. The last thing he heard before succumbing to the darkness was the voice of his father and uncle Rigby; his father started:

"In the battleground of the future, you'll need -"

"Laser-sharp vision! Laser-fast reflexes! Hi-yah!"

"And most of all, you'll need to know how to fire a laser! Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew!" his father finished.

It was bright. So painfully bright. Even under his eyelids, Mallory could still see the evil light shining into his eyes. And then it hit him – the pain, glaring, searing pain in his head. He groaned softly, still stunned. With much effort, he began to attempt opening his eyes. His lids fluttered fitfully for a few moments, until both eyes finally opened. Mallory couldn't contain the gasp which flew from him. "W-where am I?" he started, aghast. And then he noticed that it wasn't as bright as he thought.

The bat-jay was nearly at a loss for words. The setting where he found himself was so strange, yet… familiar… what was it about this place that, that seemed to special, so full of ache and hardship, yet so full of victory and heroism? Then, something hit him… he couldn't explain how… it just did… mentally, perhaps? Emotionally? Or maybe both – he didn't know.

Presently, Mallory looked around, getting a bearing of his situation and surroundings. The place seemed to have been a park, a very nicely kept one, at that. But the strange thing about it was that it was encased in glass – the entire park was in an enormous glass dome! But the most outrageous detail about the strange park was that it seemed to be floating in the middle of space… why, what could his father have done related with this thing? Mallory suddenly heard something… it was a voice… he was only able to catch two words: Space Tree. But he wasn't able to dwell on that for long -

Suddenly, something flew by the glass-encased-space-park in a blur. Mallory whirled around to see it. It was a ship. No, wait, it was two ships! After squinting a little bit, Mallory caught a decent glimpse of the ships. One was brown, with a symbol on the side that he couldn't see, and the other was blue. He didn't know why, but the latter somehow appealed to him more… what was wrong with him? But… wait a second, how could there be space ships just flying around? How was that possible?

But there was no time for him to think – just as he faced the two ships, they seemed to fly closely together, side by side, in a straight line. And then, both opened their cockpit hatches. That's when Mallory caught a glimpse of both pilots. His jaw went slack, and it dropped to the ground. "Dad! Uncle Rigby!" he screamed. No, no… how could this be happening? He knew his dad and uncle Rigby were best friends, even since high school – what was going on? Suddenly, he heard a sound erupt behind him. Again, he turned around, but the sight which met his eyes, shocked him beyond imagination. His eyes grew huge, and a scream escaped him. There, in front of him, was his brother, Matthew… but he was older, somehow. But different, so different. Older Matthew was holding something out to Mallory. Strangely, without any sort of processed though, Mallory snatched the object from his brother, and put it in his pocket. But Mallory barely saw his brother at all –suddenly, everything changed. Instead of the eccentrically located park, where he was just moments ago, he was standing in a completely different environment.

Now everything was aglow, with the color of a sickening light green. He knew he was standing on a type of dull metal, but strangely, nothing else. But before he could get a clear bearing of the setting, everything went blurry. _No_ , he thought to himself, dread filling him. "No!" he shouted to nothingness. And then everything went completely black.

Mallory opened his eyes in a "Who are you?!" he shouted at the person above him. A woman stood above him, but she wasn't any normal looking woman. She seemed to be composed completely of a cloud. And then she realized that she _was_ a cloud.

"Commander! You're awake! Good."

If Mallory was confused before, nothing could compare to now. "What?" he started, dazed. "I'm not a commander!"

"Um…" the woman started.

But the bat-jay wasn't listening. "Who _are_ you?" he asked, dazedly, now looking straight into her eyes. She seemed so familiar.

The woman stopped her gawking and looked at him straight in the eyes. And that's when Mallory noticed with a pang that she wasn't a woman. No, now she looked like a _girl_ , maybe in her early twenties. Strange, he could have sworn that she was just a bit older before… what just changed? Just seconds ago, he was lying on the ground, with that same evil yellow-green glow, with a middle-aged cloud woman standing over him. But now, he was _somewhere else_.

Immediately, hot panic arose in his chest, and his face burned, already sweating. But that soon turned to pure confusion. Why did this keep happening to him? "Seriously, what did you _do_ to me? What did I ever do to you? I don't even know who you are! Just let me go home, please!?"

Strangely, however, the woman seemed to take no notice whatsoever to the boy's outburst, or to Mallory _in general_ and instead spoke herself, keeping a huge smile on her features, looking _straight ahead_ , blankly.

"Hi, my name is Cloudy Jane. But you can call me CJ. Nice to meet you." But then, he knew, everything changed. Again. The girl's voice – this _CJ's_ voice rang over and over in his head. _"Hi, my name is Cloudy Jane. But you can call me CJ. Nice to meet you."_

And then, he was somewhere else.

It was completely dark, for a moment, but then he saw light again. But this light was different. It wasn't the same kind that he 'woke up' to just minutes ago. This was different. It was nearly dark, but light compared to the pitch black he just experienced. It was like he was in space. A majority of the setting was black, with purple undertones and highlights. And stars, lots of stars. It looked much like the night sky, he concluded, just more purple, he thought, much more purple. A night sky that he could _stand_ on. He also noticed that he could still see clearly, despite the dark setting.

Suddenly, a voice echoed through the void. His father's. But it was too blurred to hear the exact words he was saying.

 _Dad? What is it about my dad? Is he special in a way? Dad and Uncle Rigby and Aunt Eileen were all some sort of heroes years ago, but is there more to that? I mean, it's not like they saved the universe… right? They never tell me about these things_ …Mallory's thoughts were unfortunately cut off by another voice. His uncle Rigby's voice. And then he heard everything clearly, although still echoing painfully.

He first heard his uncle speak, or yell, rather.

" _What did you do with my battery?!"_

He then heard his father answer promptly, his voice lined with an evil tone. Weird, Mallory thought. He barely ever heard his father speak like that before.

" _It could be twenty minutes till your date. Or maybe it's half an hour – or maybe you ALREADY MISSED IT!"_

His uncle continued.

" _I'll find out what time it is!"_

But what Mallory's father said next scared the boy deeply:

" _I'LL KILL YOU!"_

Fear gripped Mallory – what happened, or better yet, what was going on?

Mallory suddenly felt the urge to run. He didn't know why, but something inside him was compelling him to run away, as fast as he could. So, he tried.

But before he ran even ten paces, he bumped into something. The impact knocked him down completely, on his back. _But there was nothing there_.

Now, what's with that? Mallory thought. Rubbing his head, as that's where he hit himself, he sat up.

Carefully, he ran his hands over the surface. It was smooth. So, he tried pushing it. Harder and harder he pushed, until, _Crash!_ Mallory realized that the entire thing he was shoving fell down, and shattered. _What the…_ he started. But before he could process another thought, a sound cut into his thoughts. Again. But this time, it sounded like _wind_. Like a whirlwind of some kind.

Mallory turned around, ducking and dodging clocks, hundreds and hundreds of _clocks_ , of all colors, shapes, and sizes. Steadily, the clocks formed a gigantic structure – all completely composed of clocks. Finally, with a large bong, a light purple hat flew onto the supposed top of the structure.

"So, you have reached the Final Adventure. Congratulations, Son of Mordecai."

This time, real fear, colder than before, grabbed Mallory. The clock structure _spoke_ to him. Its voice was deep, deeper than his father's and uncle Rigby's.

Somehow, he shook his thoughts back to the present. He raised his left arm and pointed at the thing, pensively, still in shock. "Who are you?" he asked, cautiously. "I am Father Time," It answered in a booming voice. "How do you know who I am?" Mallory asked. "Ah, a good question. I know who everyone is. But, nevertheless, I especially know your father."

"My father? Dad? But how?"

"Observe." Suddenly, out nowhere, an enormous hour glass appeared, from the mass of clocks. The sand continued falling into the lower portion of the glass, until, Mallory saw that something was changing. He was right. The hour glass now contained a blurry image of… his father. Mordecai.

Although Mallory could barely see his father, or Father Time himself in the image, he could hear them exchange in an _extremely_ echoey dialogue. His father spoke first:

"It's true. I _am_ jealous of Rigby. And even though he's annoying, he's still my best friend. You're right, Father Time, I deserve to be trapped here."

"I'll be honest, Mordecai. House guests _really_ annoy me. I mean, just look at how you wrecked my living room," Father Time replied.

"Oh. Sorry."

"You better be. Now, I'll give you a do-over, just this once."

"Ah man! Thanks so much!"

"But remember, stop bottling up your emotions. Because if I ever get you back again, you'll be sorry."

At that, the Hour Glass disappeared, back to where it came from, back into the huge mass of clocks.

"And now, Mallory, we have to talk," Father Time started. Mallory was taken aback by the time master's statement. "Why? Why do we need to talk? _I_ barely even know you! And will we talk about?!"

Father Time simply shook his clock 'head'. "We have much to talk about, Son of Mordecai." Mallory narrowed his eyes. "Is this about dad?" he ventured, suspiciously, yet curious at the same time. "No. This is about _you_ , Mallory. It may _involve_ your dad, but this is not _about_ him." The bat-jay looked thoughtful. When he stayed quiet, the time master continued.

"Mallory, you're not entirely different from the others, but you may have a slight gift. Now, I can't say _too_ much, but during time travel, even years later, one can come back to his younger self and possibly change history; yet you, even without beckoning, did sense a change, or 'disturbance', in time, even way later, your subconscious came to attempt to change it.

Unfortunately for you, you obviously have no idea what is going on in your future, so you can do little to nothing to change what will happen – or what already has. But worse, only your _subconscious_ knowsof such a disturbance, and not your conscious self. That's why you kind of _felt_ something was different about you, but you didn't know exactly what, or why. Because somehow, only your subconscious knows.

And now, eventually, when all this is over, you probably won't remember much of this. Unless your subconscious memory and/or mind is strong enough, you won't remember this. There's only a small chance that you will remember even a part of this, at the very most."

At hearing this, Mallory stood completely still, just staring at the time master. "Wait then…" he started, stammering in shock. "So, if I possibly won't remember this, then what _is_ this that I'm in?" Father Time chuckled. "You will find out soon."

"Okaaayy…" was all Mallory could think of saying. He continued, "So, will this ever happen again, then, Father Time?"

"That depends, of course."

"Well, what if I do remember?"

"Then you have a very good chance of something similar happening. Nothing as intense or long and detailed as this, but something smaller."

"And if I don't remember?"

"Then this probably won't happen again."

"Oh."

After a brief silence, Father Time broke the pause.

"Mallory, I think you need to talk with your father."

The bat-jay was quick to agree. "Yes, Father Time, I agree. But, umm… how do I get back?"

"You will, in a bit, Mallory, but you have one more place you must visit."

"Who? Who is it? Where? When?" Mallory started, but it was too late. The next thing he knew, he was flying at a ridiculously high speed through what seemed like a space portal; the setting still looked very similar to what appeared to be Father Time's 'living room'. But of course, traveling at such a fast speed, Mallory could barely see the setting, at that point.

But just as quickly as it started, the speedy time travel ended. And this time, he was in a different place. Again.

He seemed to be in a dimly lit space ship garage. At least, that's what he thought it was. Curiosity aroused, Mallory crept stealthily down the passage.

But he barely covered a few paces before he heard a sound coming his way. Frantically, Mallory looked around for any type of cover to hide. Glancing at the large crates at the far end of the garage, the only good hiding places, Mallory knew that he couldn't hide. Not this time.

And he was right. Before he could even make a move to take cover, a voice stopped him. He realized with a stomach-wrenching pang that it was his own. His older self had found him. "So, you've come to face me at last! You can't escape me this time!" Suddenly, Future Mallory snatched something from seemingly thin air. It was shaped like a small 'T' and it was metallic and small. But before he could stop and wonder what it was, to his horror, Mallory saw that his Future self was advancing on him, and quickly. Suddenly, the object in Future Mallory's hands erupted in a small light blue blade, and he broke into a run.

Mallory cried out in fear and backed away. But it was no use. In just seconds, his Future self would be upon him with that lethal blue blade. _And then what? Why me?! Just why me?! And why is he trying to attack_ me? _Unless he – no, I don't see myself as_ _I thought she was on our – his side – I mean, she called_ me _commander… Wait a second…_ Mallory's thoughts were a tangle of swimming emotions, troubling thoughts, voices, fears, and all the confusing mind-muddling scenes he visited. But one thing stood out especially in his mind… Matthew… but it wasn't Matthew himself who really stood out in the bat-jay's mind… it was what he was holding out to Mallory… that little object…

Without any rational thought, Mallory suddenly reached into his pocket, and grabbed the article that his brother handed to him, just minutes earlier. _It looked exactly like what his Future self was holding_. With no time to marvel at the seeming coincidence, he switched the object on, with the power switch – _how did I know how to do that?_ – and stood his ground - just in time to duck a harrowing blow from his older self. He side-stepped to the side, buying himself some space, and held the blue blade in front of him, awaiting his Future self's attacks. And he didn't have to wait long -

Future Mallory advanced again, this time stronger and faster. He swung his blade with great precision and strength, straight as his Younger self. Mallory gasped in fear, and with almost no thought, he raised his own blade to parry the lethal attack … and just as both blades met with an awesome crash of blue against blue, Present Mallory felt _different_. With ae also realized that that was the first physical blow he had dealt against himself. And it was his last – because just as both lethal blue blades met in a show of dazzling white sparks, Mallory disappeared from the scene.

In a flash, everything went back to the starry purple and black space setting, again, at a super-fast speed, which only meant one thing – time travel – a feat by Time himself. _Thank you, Father Time_ , Mallory thought quietly.

The bat-jay was once again speeding the portal through time itself. Again. But this time, Mallory had an idea of what happened. He had changed history. Maybe not much, but he still did. Because his Future self wielded the same blade as he himself did at the relative exact same time, and then made real physical contact, the _impossible_ happened. History was changed forever. _Forever_. The word rang through his head. Although he didn't know what, or why, Mallory couldn't imagine what change his presence had triggered, purposely or not. Or damage.

But he knew one thing – he needed to see his father. He needed to speak with him. What happened… or what _will happen_? And no matter what happened, Mallory knew that he needed to remember this – or else all was lost.

As the end of the portal was rapidly approaching, another thought hit him. Mallory managed to maneuver his arm to his pocket, even against the immense pressure of the speed he was traveling at, and reached for the blade. Mallory gasped. _It was gone_. Gone with it all.

But before he could cry out, Mallory's trip ended – and possibly forever. He was back in his bed. Back on earth. Back at home.

And then the drama of the whole thing hit the bat-jay like a load of bricks to the stomach. And that's when Mallory began to hyperventilate frantically, thoughtlessly, as his mind attempted to take in all he experienced.

And then, without anything left, Mallory's body suddenly collapsed onto the bed in a faint.

Mallory suddenly awoke with a jolt.

He was on his bed, and his body somehow was drenched with sweat. The sheets were waded around him, disheveled and messy. _What had happened?_ Strange, he thought. And there it was: a small, no, miniscule feeling that he was somehow… different, special.

Wait a second... something why was his head ringing so bad? God, it hurt.

And then something hit him. Just two words:

 **Space Tree**.


End file.
